Volunteer Partners

Smart Futures is training people with science and technology backgrounds to give career talks to students in secondary schools around Ireland.

Volunteers come from STEM companies such as Abbott, Novartis, IBM, Google and SAP etc. across the pharma chemical, medical devices, energy and technology sector, as well as from research centres and academia.

Who do you reach?

Career talks are aimed at Junior Cycle and Transition Year students, with a view to encouraging them to keep on STEM subjects, but may also be available for Senior Cycle students.

Already a volunteer?

When you have agreed a school visit, use these tips to prepare:

Read our volunteer resource document under ‘Resources’ on the right hand side of the page.
Ensure you contact the school to confirm visit time and any necessary equipment
Inform the school of any changes to the agreed visit in good time and update us at smartfutures@sfi.ie
Outline to the teacher what you plan to talk about
Prepare and personalise your PowerPoint presentation
Update yourself on information relating to PLC routes, apprenticeships and the National Qualifications Framework
See an overview of the newest STEM-related apprenticeships here (includes: MedTech, software development and manufacturing engineering)

Volunteers with science and technology backgrounds will find lots of resources on this page (right hand column of this page), while volunteers with
engineering backgrounds can also access volunteer resources with an engineering focus on STEPS.ie.